John Ebersole, associate provost and dean of Extended Education, will become president of Excelsior College

Distance education, BU Global among his accomplishments

John Ebersole, associate provost and dean of the Division of Extended Education. Photo by Kalman Zabarsky

Four years ago, when John Ebersole was appointed associate provost and dean of the Division of Extended Education (EXED), one of his goals for the newly formed division was to strengthen the University’s commitment to lifelong learning, especially for students who are older, working, or wish to attend school part-time.

With that mission accomplished, in January 2006 Ebersole will leave BU to become president of Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y., which specializes in distance education.

In fact, much of BU’s movement into distance education occurred under Ebersole’s watch as EXED attracted new constituencies with technology-based learning initiatives. “BU now has one of the highest quality and most well-integrated online learning programs anywhere,” he says.

EXED includes Metropolitan College, Summer Term, Distance Education, BU Global, the Corporate Education Center in Tyngsboro, the Center for Professional Education, and the Sargent Center for Outdoor Education in New Hampshire.

Ebersole is especially pleased with the results of BU Global, a four-year-old international training and education program that offers diplomas in banking and financial services, entrepreneurial management, information systems and security, hospitality and tourism management, international marketing, and project management. “With BU Global,” he says, “I think we’ve been able to reach out to international students in effective ways.”

Ebersole, who was dean of Metropolitan College for a year before assuming the newly created EXED post in August 2001, came to BU after serving as associate provost at Colorado State University. Prior to that, the Coast Guard veteran was assistant dean of university extension at the University of California at Berkeley, Ebersole also was dean of the School of Management at John F. Kennedy University in Orinda, Calif. He holds graduate degrees in business, public administration, and international affairs.